The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

Join 1,707 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Lonely Lands

Catherine Cavendish Why did I love this book?

Ramsey Campbell deserves to be as well known to any horror reader – any reader of any genre really – as Stephen King and yet for some reason he isn’t. If you are coming to this without having read any of his impressive back catalogue, don’t worry because there are many, many treats in store for you. The Lonely Lands is most assuredly one of them and is a great place to start.

This story has echoes of Richard Matheson (in Where Dreams May Come) in its premise. The main character is dealing with the loss of his dearly loved wife and must endure the horrors of the other world. There the similarity ends as The Lonely Lands takes very different twists and turns, transporting the reader along with it in true Campbell style.

Expect the unexpected in among the scares and darkness, along with poignancy and themes that ensure you won’t forget this story in a hurry.

By Ramsey Campbell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Lonely Lands as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The latest bestseller from the ultimate craftsman of the dark fantastic, Ramsey Campbell. Joe Hunter has begun to adjust to the loss of his wife when he hears her calling from beyond, "Where am I?" His urge to help leads him into her afterlife, which is made up of their memories. Even the best of those is no refuge from the restless dead, and Joe can only lure them away from her. Soon they begin to invade his everyday life, and every journey he makes to find her leaves him less able to return. When her refuges turn nightmarish he…


Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Hollows

Catherine Cavendish Why did I love this book?

Daniel Church is a new name in fiction but if The Hollows is anything to go by, we will be hearing much more from him in the future. This story is part horror and part crime – taking the best of both traditions and mixing them together in an unholy and mesmerizing brew. Someone needs to make a miniseries of this!

Set in the freezing cold of a Peak District winter, the author paints the scene so vividly we can actually feel the intense cold penetrating our bones and every fibre of our being as he takes us deep into the world of the Harpers – a family surely spawned of hell. Local people’s lives are threatened. First one murder then more. Fear is ratcheted up and so effectively it engages all our senses. This is not your typical serial killing. Much more is going on here, as police officer, Ellie, soon discovers.

From the first page to the last, this novel delivers.

By Daniel Church,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Hollows as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Shortlisted for the 2022 British Fantasy Horror Award.

In a lonely village in the Peak District, during the onset of a once-in-a-lifetime snow storm, Constable Ellie Cheetham finds a body. The man, a local ne'er-do-well, appears to have died in a tragic accident: he drank too much and froze to death.
But the facts don't add up: the dead man is clutching a knife in one hand, and there's evidence he was hiding from someone. Someone who watched him die. Stranger still, an odd mark has been drawn onto a stone beside his body. The next victims are two families…


Want my future book recommendations?

My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future

Catherine Cavendish Why did I love this book?

Christi Nogel is a rising star of the horror genre and The Best of Our Past, The Worst of Our Future brings together a number of her excellent, intriguing, and tantalizing short stories for the first time.

The author excels at creating tense atmospheres – fear, creeping dread (a particular favourite of mine), suspense, tension, and overall unease. Here are worlds out of synch with each other. Here are beings searching for something; anything they can make sense of. In these stories you will meet the Gothic, the haunted, and the dystopian.

There are twisted personalities – and there are beings who are not nor may ever have been, human. It’s a real cornucopia – each story unique in itself and destined to leave its mark on the reader.

By Christi Nogle,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Without a doubt, Christi Nogle is one of my favorite new voices in horror. Her fiction is by turns devastating, horrifying, and beyond beautiful. With her collection, The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, she's created something truly remarkable, the kind of horror that's filled with grit and heart. Don't miss this book; it's sure to be one of the very best collections of 2023."- Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant Immortals

The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future collects Christi Nogle's finest psychological and supernatural horror stories.…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The After-Death of Caroline Rand

By Catherine Cavendish,

Book cover of The After-Death of Caroline Rand

What is my book about?

At a weekend house party at ancient Canonbury Manor, Alli is caught between fantasy and reality, past and present, in the life of Caroline Rand, a famous singer from the late Sixties, who reportedly killed herself in that house. Alli soon learns that evil infests the once-holy building. A sinister cabal controls it, as it has for centuries. Before long, her fate will be sealed, and she will learn about her role in the after-death of Caroline Rand.

It begins with a chilling greeting: "Welcome to The Columbine, Miss Sinclair. You are expected."